Shapeways to Open Factory of the Future in Long Island City

The 3D printing company Shapeways today cut the ribbon on its new manufacturing facility in New York’s Long Island City, a ceremony attended by Mayor Bloomberg and Empire State Development President and CEO Kenneth Adam. The 25,000 square foot “Factory of the Future” is set to go into operation in January 2013 and will house 30 to 50 high definition, industrial sized printers, according to the company’s website. The facility is also projected to create as many as 50 new manufacturing jobs and produce up to five million products per year. Says Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen: “We’re doing something that’s never been done before. We are manufacturing, post-processing, cleaning, sorting, and shipping thousands of unique items on a daily basis right here in New York.” Weijmarshausen is slated to speak at November’s Techonomy conference in Tucson, where a discussion about how how tech tools can help revitalize US manufacturing and bring new jobs to American soil will have particular resonance in the wake of the presidential election.